In Nevada, Running for Senate and From Cameras

Sharron Angle, a Tea Party darling, has refused to talk to reporters, leading to some unusually aggressive behavior by local television stations.

BRIAN STELTER

RENO — There is a game in Nevada called “Where’s Sharron Angle?” that the press is tired of playing.

Ms. Angle, a Nevada Senate candidate and Tea Party darling, has steadfastly refused to talk to reporters here, leading to some unusually aggressive behavior by local television stations. In a segment fit for TMZ, one intrepid reporter chased her on foot outside a restaurant this month, repeatedly asking why she had once said that “if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies.” She ignored the questioner and tried to outpace him, in a video clip replayed across the state.

In her silence, Ms. Angle has exposed a fault line in political journalism. Candidates typically live and die by television exposure, with interviews supplementing the usual barrage of advertisements. But in local races across the country, there are fewer reporters asking questions on behalf of voters, and there are more media alternatives than ever, including talk radio and Facebook.

Still, Ms. Angle is quickly discovering that there is no better way to wake up a sleepy TV news crew than to refuse an interview request — or 10 requests, or 20.

“I can’t remember a time that we’ve ever had trouble with interviews,” said Mary Beth Farrell, the news director at KRNV, the local NBC affiliate. “Especially with people running for office — they usually beat our door down.”

After weeks of private rejections, KRNV last Monday publicly called on Ms. Angle to explain her positions to Nevada voters, an unprecedented step by the station, Ms. Farrell said. A day later, apparently coincidentally, she agreed to a single TV interview, to be broadcast on Tuesday.

In a state where reporters say they can knock at the Governor’s Mansion and say hello, people are wondering whether Ms. Angle’s “no comments” — except to friendly radio hosts — are indicative of something bigger. The reporters said they suspect that Ms. Angle, who has said that the Environmental Protection Agency should be eliminated and that Social Security should be “transitioned out,” is afraid of running into the same interview buzz saw as Rand Paul’s Senate campaign did in Kentucky.

Mr. Paul, another Tea Party favorite, was widely criticized for his views on civil rights after an appearance on MSNBC last month, leading him to cancel an appearance on “Meet the Press,” the gold standard of political TV interviews. (Since that, though, local stations in Kentucky have had access to Mr. Paul, said Mark Neerman, the news director at WHAS in Louisville.)

“One bad moment can derail an entire campaign,” said Mark Macias, a former producer for New York, Miami and Phoenix stations and the author of “Beat the Press,” who pointed to the bad press accumulated by Sarah Palin when she was interviewed in the 2008 presidential campaign. Now out of office, Ms. Palin may be a role model of sorts for subverting the news media; she now rarely gives interviews, except to Fox News, which pays her to be a contributor.

Ms. Angle, a local Republican legislator, was friendlier to the press back when she was deemed a long shot in the Senate race, according to reporters who have known her for years. But that changed after she was enthroned as the Tea Party’s choice to challenge Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, this fall. A week before the June 8 primary, her spokesman, Jerry Stacy, was quoted as saying, “She’s not interested in meeting up with any media or anything.”

Ms. Angle’s campaign strategy — if it is indeed a strategy; a spokesman did not respond to a request for comment — is representative of a pick-and-choose media landscape. Since the primary victory, she has showed up on Fox News and sat down with several conservative radio hosts, including Bill Manders of KOH, the dominant talk station in Reno. “She answers every question I ask her,” Mr. Manders said, although he said he had advised her to give more interviews.

At the moment, said Anjeanette Damon, a longtime political reporter for The Reno Gazette-Journal who recently moved to The Las Vegas Sun, “she is just talking to the base, people who are going to start sending her money.” Jason Pasco, the news director at KTVN, the CBS affiliate in Reno, called that tactic a “disservice to our viewers,” some of whom have been calling local stations and asking questions about Ms. Angle’s views. He speculated that Internet outlets like YouTube and Twitter, which allow for unfettered connections between candidates and voters, had emboldened her campaign.

“Maybe they think they can hit the people they want to hit directly,” he said. “I don’t think that hits the undecided voters though.”

Republican officials have said that reporters will hear from Ms. Angle in due time, once she builds up her campaign staff. Mr. Macias said, “If she’s not answering all the questions, it’s probably because she doesn’t have the answers yet.”

In the meantime, Mr. Reid’s campaign has made Ms. Angle’s silence a campaign issue, and the state Democratic committee has designed a Web site showing her in an underground bunker, hiding from a camera crew.

Mr. Manders, who displays a bumper sticker on his radio studio switchboard that says, “Elect anyone but Harry Reid,” said Mr. Reid was actually the one who “runs and hides,” having granted only three interviews to him in seven years. But local news executives scoff at the comparison, saying Mr. Reid and his staff had worked to demonstrate that he was not ignoring his home state.

“He may still dodge questions, but at least you can see him do it,” Mr. Pasco said.

As for the reporter in the restaurant parking lot, Nathan Baca of KLAS in Las Vegas, he says he was called “an idiot” by an Angle campaign aide after trying to interview her. Her campaign later denied that, saying, “the official in-state spokesman was not at the event.”

Jon Ralston, the political columnist who will interview Ms. Angle this week on his television show, “Face to Face,” had talked on the air about the problems getting hold of her. On one broadcast he mentioned that her spokesman’s voice mailbox was full.

When the spokesman called back, he told Mr. Ralston that they wanted the “toughest in the business” to interview her.

“Flattering, perhaps,” Mr. Ralston said last week, “but it’s also possible they were advised to get it over with on June 29 to mitigate any fallout. The election is still four-plus months away.”

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